Media and food
Last Friday, there was a departmental meeting at a different site. Basically, we had a tons of talks, mainly about a new project, but also random updates. It was kind of boring, but not the worst thing. Funnily enough, someone on my left kept falling asleep or getting close to falling asleep while the person on my right was so hungry that I could hear his stomach. I've been in both situations at long meetings, so I can't really criticize. Although, when the person next to you (that you know), starts to fall asleep, I always wonder if I should nudge them or kick their foot or something. I often will do stuff like shuffle my papers or shift in my chair to make some sound, but I never know if its good to leave them alone or to try to help them along.
At these meetings, we often have a "team building" exercise. It was okay, basically, the room would divide based on questions and you can talk about it, etc. It was okay. One of the questions was "have you've been to 20 countries". I did a quick count and went to the "no" side, but thinking about it later, I'm actually extremely close to 20; we'll have twenty after this year: (1) USA, (2) Canada, (3) Mexico, (4) Bahamas, (5) Haiti, (6) Turks and Caicos, (7) St. Maarten (which apparently is par tof the Netherlands), (8) Greece, (9) Turkey, (10) Eygpt, (11) France, (12) UK, (13) Italy, (14) Germany, (15) Czech Republic, (16) Austria, (17) China, (18) Taiwan (if it counts), (19) Japan... upcoming: Scandinavian countries! I was honestly surprised since I first didn't think about the Caribbean or our Berlin/Prague/Vienna trip, so I thought I only had a little more than 10. Pretty proud, =P
Anyway, this weekend was cold. These 30° drops in temperature are getting a bit annoying. I think it makes the cold feel colder since you're used to unseasonably high temps. Anyway, due to the cold, we pretty much stayed indoors. On Saturday, we went to the movies to watch Logan. Overall, I thought it was good. First, its always good to have solid R rated movies that are good and do well. I hate how they try to make action movies PG-13 all the time. It was a bit long, but it was good. It had a similar feel to Old Man Logan, but substituting Xavier for Hawkeye and changing the missions/stakes. Oh, and adding X-23. I thought X-23/Laura was pretty decent, especially when she wasn't talking. I actually kind of thought her randomly starting to talk was a bit odd, but necessary, I guess. I also liked that she was a brutal fighter because in media, it seems like women fighters often are very elegant so it was nice that she was brutal, just like Wolverine. Now, I wonder if its one shot, not in-world canon movie or if the X Movie Universe actually lead towards it or foreshadow towards it.
Spoilers
I also like that the "mission" didn't change and raise the stakes. It seems like many movies of "bring x to y", turn into "once you get to y, save the world". So it was refreshing that they pretty much just ended without saving the world. I also liked the death of Xavier scene. When he's stabbed and you see its a younger Wolverine, you're trained to think "oh, this is just a dream sequence for shock value". But its actually a twist that its NOT a dream sequence. So I liked that. And having Wolverine die and not ambiguously having a scene of him maybe being alive is also good. So in general, I was a fan.
And since one movie wasn't enough, when I got home, I decided to watch Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition. Overall, I'd say I liked the theatrical release much more than most people. So I got this for Christmas and have been meeting to watch it. Angie isn't a big fan, so I just decided to watch it while she did other things. Its freaking long (3.5 hrs!), but I liked it. I understand that the movie has somewhat major flaws (I think mainly the Martha thing and the speed of the heroes hating then liking each other). But in general, I think BvS is given much more grief than it deserves. Watching it again (is that accurate for a different cut?), I enjoyed it a good amount. It lays a good foundation; I liked Ben Affleck's Batman a good amount. And I even thought it wasn't nearly as dark (visually) as people say it is. I don't know; I like Zack Snyder and I think his visuals are often very nice. I was disappointed that there wasn't an epic music video intro song (similar to Sucker Punch or Watchmen).
Although I do think watching it, it does set up Batman to "change" back to the normal Batman, which is eh. But who knows what the DC Movie Universe will do. I think Warner Bros is just too impatient to lay down a good foundation before they want their "Avengers" and random bizarre stuff like Suicide Squad, which I do think I'll check out eventually even though I have no confidence in it.
We also watched lots of Fated to Love You and we're almost done. And I guess Angie wasn't lying when she said it drags towards the end. The series could probably be 5 episodes or so shorter, but overall, its pretty good. I'd say overall better than the Korean remake.
Last week, not sure what days exactly, we made the other two boxes from Hello Fresh. They were some sort of potato chicken pot pie and some sort of prosciutto wrapped chicken with risotto.
Food Pictures
Ingredients for the "Tater-Topped Pot Pie" plus chicken unpictured. (https://goo.gl/photos/HQYM7UfuYApZ1eqa9)
Shallots, peas, chicken, soap stock, and mushrooms, otherwise known as standard pot pie filling. (https://goo.gl/photos/rTWc8aHti6G6H3KZ8)
Potatoes, peeled, cut, boiled, and drained. (https://goo.gl/photos/zoDqvDZstd7188yB9)
So its the pot pie filling (plus sour cream), with potatoes on top, then cheese and panko. (https://goo.gl/photos/SJENsLCXehG2cYmg7)
We used the "broil" option of the oven, which I've never used before. It wasn't so bad. Now, I kind of want to broil a steak someday. (https://goo.gl/photos/MRbkNwt3JzV4zrrf6)
And to show layers. (https://goo.gl/photos/mwniJNhpNkNx2q3t7)
This is for the prosciutto wrapped chicken and risotto. (https://goo.gl/photos/bv8XaqshpPSHdK1i6)
Chicken, wrapped and cooked before putting in the oven. (https://goo.gl/photos/v9KJUiR9QugVvZ2J9)
Risotto was made with tomatoes and spinach. Topped with sage, which was a bit strong. But the chicken was delicous! The prosciutto was crispy and the chicken was fairly moist. (https://goo.gl/photos/kqZmgJF3iLpiSLdA9)
Yesterday, we were just doing separate things on the couch for a while and had on MTV Classics. It was in a rock block and it was good.
But in a continual attempt to add more music to my life, I should try a few new bands based on what Pandora plays for me. Based on 2 to 5 songs, I think I'll eventually try some of the following:
-One Day As a Lion which is a combination of the old Rage Against the Machine singer and the drummer from The Mars Volta, which I never listened to, but heard of.
-Poe, who apparently is a solo act that stole the name from her group or something?
-The Hush Sound, which has a couple of songs that are okay even though they seem like they could be a bit hipstery.
-Eve 6, which I have been told from someone in high school that I'd like them (this was probably when "Inside Out" and "Promise" were popular)
It seems like there should be more, but I'll add to this list as Pandora plays me stuff that I like.
At these meetings, we often have a "team building" exercise. It was okay, basically, the room would divide based on questions and you can talk about it, etc. It was okay. One of the questions was "have you've been to 20 countries". I did a quick count and went to the "no" side, but thinking about it later, I'm actually extremely close to 20; we'll have twenty after this year: (1) USA, (2) Canada, (3) Mexico, (4) Bahamas, (5) Haiti, (6) Turks and Caicos, (7) St. Maarten (which apparently is par tof the Netherlands), (8) Greece, (9) Turkey, (10) Eygpt, (11) France, (12) UK, (13) Italy, (14) Germany, (15) Czech Republic, (16) Austria, (17) China, (18) Taiwan (if it counts), (19) Japan... upcoming: Scandinavian countries! I was honestly surprised since I first didn't think about the Caribbean or our Berlin/Prague/Vienna trip, so I thought I only had a little more than 10. Pretty proud, =P
Anyway, this weekend was cold. These 30° drops in temperature are getting a bit annoying. I think it makes the cold feel colder since you're used to unseasonably high temps. Anyway, due to the cold, we pretty much stayed indoors. On Saturday, we went to the movies to watch Logan. Overall, I thought it was good. First, its always good to have solid R rated movies that are good and do well. I hate how they try to make action movies PG-13 all the time. It was a bit long, but it was good. It had a similar feel to Old Man Logan, but substituting Xavier for Hawkeye and changing the missions/stakes. Oh, and adding X-23. I thought X-23/Laura was pretty decent, especially when she wasn't talking. I actually kind of thought her randomly starting to talk was a bit odd, but necessary, I guess. I also liked that she was a brutal fighter because in media, it seems like women fighters often are very elegant so it was nice that she was brutal, just like Wolverine. Now, I wonder if its one shot, not in-world canon movie or if the X Movie Universe actually lead towards it or foreshadow towards it.
Spoilers
I also like that the "mission" didn't change and raise the stakes. It seems like many movies of "bring x to y", turn into "once you get to y, save the world". So it was refreshing that they pretty much just ended without saving the world. I also liked the death of Xavier scene. When he's stabbed and you see its a younger Wolverine, you're trained to think "oh, this is just a dream sequence for shock value". But its actually a twist that its NOT a dream sequence. So I liked that. And having Wolverine die and not ambiguously having a scene of him maybe being alive is also good. So in general, I was a fan.
And since one movie wasn't enough, when I got home, I decided to watch Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition. Overall, I'd say I liked the theatrical release much more than most people. So I got this for Christmas and have been meeting to watch it. Angie isn't a big fan, so I just decided to watch it while she did other things. Its freaking long (3.5 hrs!), but I liked it. I understand that the movie has somewhat major flaws (I think mainly the Martha thing and the speed of the heroes hating then liking each other). But in general, I think BvS is given much more grief than it deserves. Watching it again (is that accurate for a different cut?), I enjoyed it a good amount. It lays a good foundation; I liked Ben Affleck's Batman a good amount. And I even thought it wasn't nearly as dark (visually) as people say it is. I don't know; I like Zack Snyder and I think his visuals are often very nice. I was disappointed that there wasn't an epic music video intro song (similar to Sucker Punch or Watchmen).
Although I do think watching it, it does set up Batman to "change" back to the normal Batman, which is eh. But who knows what the DC Movie Universe will do. I think Warner Bros is just too impatient to lay down a good foundation before they want their "Avengers" and random bizarre stuff like Suicide Squad, which I do think I'll check out eventually even though I have no confidence in it.
We also watched lots of Fated to Love You and we're almost done. And I guess Angie wasn't lying when she said it drags towards the end. The series could probably be 5 episodes or so shorter, but overall, its pretty good. I'd say overall better than the Korean remake.
Last week, not sure what days exactly, we made the other two boxes from Hello Fresh. They were some sort of potato chicken pot pie and some sort of prosciutto wrapped chicken with risotto.
Food Pictures
Ingredients for the "Tater-Topped Pot Pie" plus chicken unpictured. (https://goo.gl/photos/HQYM7UfuYApZ1eqa9)
Shallots, peas, chicken, soap stock, and mushrooms, otherwise known as standard pot pie filling. (https://goo.gl/photos/rTWc8aHti6G6H3KZ8)
Potatoes, peeled, cut, boiled, and drained. (https://goo.gl/photos/zoDqvDZstd7188yB9)
So its the pot pie filling (plus sour cream), with potatoes on top, then cheese and panko. (https://goo.gl/photos/SJENsLCXehG2cYmg7)
We used the "broil" option of the oven, which I've never used before. It wasn't so bad. Now, I kind of want to broil a steak someday. (https://goo.gl/photos/MRbkNwt3JzV4zrrf6)
And to show layers. (https://goo.gl/photos/mwniJNhpNkNx2q3t7)
This is for the prosciutto wrapped chicken and risotto. (https://goo.gl/photos/bv8XaqshpPSHdK1i6)
Chicken, wrapped and cooked before putting in the oven. (https://goo.gl/photos/v9KJUiR9QugVvZ2J9)
Risotto was made with tomatoes and spinach. Topped with sage, which was a bit strong. But the chicken was delicous! The prosciutto was crispy and the chicken was fairly moist. (https://goo.gl/photos/kqZmgJF3iLpiSLdA9)
Yesterday, we were just doing separate things on the couch for a while and had on MTV Classics. It was in a rock block and it was good.
But in a continual attempt to add more music to my life, I should try a few new bands based on what Pandora plays for me. Based on 2 to 5 songs, I think I'll eventually try some of the following:
-One Day As a Lion which is a combination of the old Rage Against the Machine singer and the drummer from The Mars Volta, which I never listened to, but heard of.
-Poe, who apparently is a solo act that stole the name from her group or something?
-The Hush Sound, which has a couple of songs that are okay even though they seem like they could be a bit hipstery.
-Eve 6, which I have been told from someone in high school that I'd like them (this was probably when "Inside Out" and "Promise" were popular)
It seems like there should be more, but I'll add to this list as Pandora plays me stuff that I like.